Eni, abbreviation of Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi (Italian: “State Hydrocarbons Authority”), in full Eni SpA, Italian energy company operating primarily in petroleum, natural gas, and petrochemicals. Established in 1953, it is one of Europe’s largest oil companies in terms of sales. Eni has operations in more than 70 countries. Its headquarters are in Rome.

Eni headquarters, Rome.

Siloé Mascolo

Eni is an outgrowth of Agip (Azienda Generale Italiana Petroli), an oil and gas agency set up by the Italian fascist government in the 1920s. In 1952 Enrico Mattei, a former resistance fighter, persuaded the Italian postwar government to coordinate the Agip gas and oil holdings in the new Eni; descendants of Agip are now the exploration and production and the refining and marketing divisions of Eni SpA. Eni was state-owned until 1995, when the government began to privatize the company; after a series of stock sales, more than 60 percent of Eni was publicly owned.

Eni divisions engage in the exploration, production, transportation, refining, and retailing of oil and natural gas. Motor fuel is sold in Italy and other European countries at Eni and Agip service stations under the well-known trademark of a fire-breathing six-legged dog, originally designed in 1953. Exploration for oil is intensive, especially in oceanic areas, and Eni has established itself as a leader in ocean mining technology. Originally basing its reserves on gas discoveries in the Po River valley of northern Italy, Eni now holds extensive exploration rights in North Africa, western Africa, Latin America, Kazakhstan, and the North Sea. It is a major importer and distributor through pipelines of natural gas from North Africa and Russia.

As consolidation within the oil industry increased in the late 1990s, Eni began acquiring a number of companies, including British-Borneo Oil & Gas PLC (2000), the U.K. oil firm Lasmo PLC (2001), and Italgas SpA (2002), an Italian gas distributor in which Eni already held a minority stake. Among Eni’s other interests are polymers, basic chemicals, electric power generation, and the manufacture of heavy machinery.

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